How do I know what my gift is and how to use it?

[Michael V. Pardo]

When I read through the thread it made me think of King Ahab's 400 prophets who predicted that he would win the battle that he was about to fight. King Jehoshaphat came to assist him in the battle and after he heard the 400 prophets do their thing, he asked, "Is there a prophet of the Lord we can hear from?" Ahab told him that there was Michaiah, "but he doesn't prophesy anything good about me!" Of course Michaiah gave quite a different prophecy.

I just wonder what would happen in a modern Pentecostal or Charismatic church if a large number of "prophets" prophesied on a certain topic, maybe that God was going to bring victory and prosper the church, and just one godly member got up and prophesied that there was "sin in the camp" and that God would not prosper the church until it was dealt with?

I would say that the church would believe the majority of prophecies and reject the one that was different from the others, and most probably get the godly man escorted from the meeting. This happened in a conference when a godly minister was prophesied over by a woman "prophet", that he was blessed of God. He then addressed the people urging them to put their trust in what Jesus did on the Cross and that to get saved they needed to repent and believe the Gospel. The woman prophet then told him he had a demon and had security frog march him out of the conference!

I think that the example of Michaiah and Ahab's 400 prophets serves as a lesson for us that the majority is not always right. It is not whether a gift is approved by others in the church, but rather whether it is consistent with God's Word, and that the fruit of the gift shows evidence that it is truly of God. For example, if a person says he has a healing gift, but no one gets healed when he ministers to them, then he cannot show by any fruit that he really has a healing gift at all. It is the same with prophecy. If a fellow gets up and gives a prophecy and it is forgotten by the singing of the next hymn, has that prophecy really come from the Holy Spirit? That is the question.

I think it would be kind of hard to mistake Baal for Jesus, though a free Mason might. Your analogy is pretty poor when considering that we're talking about professing Christians. The prophets of Baal didn't worship the God of scripture or observe the law of Moses.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I think it would be kind of hard to mistake Baal for Jesus, though a free Mason might. Your analogy is pretty poor when considering that we're talking about professing Christians. The prophets of Baal didn't worship the God of scripture or observe the law of Moses.

Nowhere in my post did I say that Ahab's prophets were prophets of Baal. There is no mention of what they were, except that they were the prophets that were assigned as Ahab's spiritual advisers. Also, there is no evidence that they did not prophesy God's Word under normal circumstances, although Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord to the point where Elijah thought he was the only prophet left in Israel. So, if the 400 prophets advising Ahab were not killed by Jezebel, then they weren't the same as the prophets of the Lord that Jezebel had put to death. Also, because Ahab's prophets mostly prophesied truth, then the Lord giving permission for a lying spirit to be in the mouths of those prophets was necessary to ensure that the prophets would give the wrong impression to Ahab that he was going to win the battle instead of being defeated. Also, Jehosophat recognised that the prophets were shonky, and that is why he asked if there was a prophet of the Lord available to give a prophecy that would be more in line with the word of God.